Flipping homes is becoming a less profitable business venture for investors, an Attom Data Solutions report finds.
The return on investment for fix-and-flip properties dipped to 25% in the first quarter of 2025, down from 28% the previous quarter. In the fall of 2020, the ROI on flipping homes was 48.8%, per the data vendor.
The decline is attributed to a combination of
Attom's report also shows that the average time it took for investors to buy and resell a property rose to 164 days in the first quarter, up from 157 days the previous quarter.
According to Rob Barber, CEO of Attom, the high cost of homes makes "it harder to find underpriced homes to buy up and it's ultimately squeezing profit margins for the industry."
"It's tricky to balance at times when the market looks like it could take a downturn," Barber added in a statement. "Investors don't want to buy a property when prices are high and then see them drop before they're ready to sell."
As flipping returns decline, so have gross profits. Investors earned an average gross profit of $65,000 per property in the first quarter, down from $75,000 the previous quarter. On average, investors paid $260,000 for a home and resold it for $325,000.
A total of 67,394 single-family homes and condos were flipped in the first quarter, representing 8.3% of all home sales. That's a slight increase from 7.4% in the previous quarter, but a decrease from 8.7% year-over-year.
Investors saw the best returns in parts of the Northeast and Midwest. These markets include Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh and Scranton, Pennsylvania; along with Peoria and Rockford, Illinois.
Meanwhile, some markets that
Attom data also shows that cash remains dominant in the flipping market. Nationwide, 62.2% of homes flipped in the first quarter were purchased with all cash.
Metro areas with the highest share of cash purchases included Rockford (81.6%); Toledo, Ohio (81.2%); Buffalo (81.2%); Cape Coral, Florida (81.1%); and Naples, Florida (81.1%).
The share of flipped homes financed with Federal Housing Administration-backed loans was 10.9%, up from 10.5% in the previous quarter, per the report.
